July 2012

July 25, 2012

Texas and Baylor will each make three appearances as part of the Big 12’s “Big Monday” men’s basketball package on ESPN during the 2012-13 season, league officials announced today.

Baylor, an Elite Eight team last season, meets Kansas _ which fell to Kentucky in last year’s NCAA championship game _ in the league’s first “Big Monday” contest, on Jan. 14. Baylor plays at Texas on March 4 in the league’s final “Big Monday” telecast of the regular season.

The full schedule of “Big Monday games and tipoff times:

2012-13 Big 12 Conference Men’s Basketball Schedule on ESPN’s “Big Monday”All games televised on ESPN and available on WatchESPN

July 24, 2012

DALLAS _ If any Penn State player relocates to a school in Texas to continue his college football career, Baylor looms as a likely destination.

Bears coach Art Briles confirmed Tuesday that the school has been approached by at least one player from the Nittany Lions’ roster in the wake of Monday’s announcement that Penn State players can transfer with immediate eligibility in the wake of NCAA sanctions related to the Jerry Sandusky child abuse case.

“If people reach out to us, that says they’re willing to move on. If they do that, then we’re willing to talk,” said Briles, whose staff includes three assistant coaches with Penn State connections (Brian Norwood, Chris Achuff, Cal Lowry). “If a guy can play, we’re going to look at him without question.”

Baylor added defensive end Shawn Oakman, a transfer from Penn State, to its roster on July 2. Former Bears’ defensive tackle Phil Taylor, a first-round pick in the 2011 NFL Draft, also transferred from Penn State to Baylor to finish his college career.

Among coaches who took part in Tuesday’s session of the Big 12 media days, all indicated interest in talking to Penn State players who reached out to them. But only Briles, who cited a Baylor staff that is “heavily connected to Penn State,” indicated Tuesday that his school has been approached by a potential transfer.

Asked about the possibility of adding a player from Penn State, Texas coach Mack Brown said: “You’d have to look at whether the player contacted you, if you had legitimate interest in him and if he fit.” Fera, an All-Big Ten performer last season, could fill a need position on Texas’ roster.

Kansas coach Charlie Weis, who plans to start Notre Dame transfer Dayne Crist at quarterback, said he would have interest in Penn State players.

“When the dust settles, I think there will be several players that entertain the thought of going somewhere else,” Weis said. “So I think that any program that didn’t do homework prior to this decision coming out … was behind on that one.”

Briles said he was unsure if Oakman, who signed July 2 with Baylor, would be granted immediate eligibility for the 2012 season with other transfers from Penn State. A redshirt freshman last season, Oakman (6-foot-9, 265 pounds) has four years of eligibility remaining and played high school football in Landsdowne, Pa.

“It’s not critical that he’s able to go this year,” Briles said. “But it would certainly help.”Among Big 12 schools, West Virginia’s campus sits in closest proximity to Penn State. Asked about the possibility of adding a Penn State transfer, West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said: “I think you’ve just got to look at it and see what your needs are. It can be beneficial if you identify what your needs are.”

A year ago, Mack Brown said, Texas was headed into fall camp with four quarterbacks looking for one to earn the starting job.After a couple transfers, the battle is down to two a year later with David Ash and Case McCoy left to battle for the starting spot this August."What we have done now, we have two older guys that have been through a year with the Bryan Harsin and Major Applewhite offense. They both won significant games, one against -- Case against A&M in College Station at the end of the year, David Ash in the Bowl game against Cal. So we're coming in at a much better place this year than we were last year.”Brown said Ash, a sophomore from Belton High School, and, McCoy, a junior from Graham High School who is Colt's brother, left spring practice even. But reporters who regularly cover Texas say Ash was the clear favorite after spring practice and took 80 percent of the reps. Still, Brown maintained the starting role is still up for grabs.“They've had a very competitive summer, and both of them are in the mix and we should have a great battle at that position in preseason,” Brown said. “I feel like that one of those guys will separate himself some in preseason and it will give us the other guy to come off the bench and play if need be.”Brown invoked former Longhorn greats Vince Young and Colt McCoy as if to commiserate with Texas fans who long for a top quarterback.“There's no question those are two of the best quarterbacks to ever play college football,” Brown said. “You'd like to have that luxury. But even then, if they get hurt like Colt did in the National Championship Game, you're usually inexperienced in the backup role. But, obviously, that's a key to us being better is we need to play better at quarterback. And I think that means we need to have more explosive plays from that position and at the same time we need to protect the ball better.”

July 23, 2012

Offensive guard Blaize Foltz has been named to the watch lists for the Outland Trophy and Rotary Lombardi Award and has been nominated for the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team, which recognizes college football players committed to making a difference in the their communities.Quarterback Casey Pachall has been named to the watch lists for the Manning Award, Davey O’Brien Award, and Maxwell Award.

Running backs Matthew Tucker and Waymon James have been named to the Doak Walker Award watch list. TCU is the only school to have to players on the watch list.

TCU is set to name Randy Shannon as its new linebacker coach several sources said Monday. Shannon, who was head coach at Miami from 2007 to 2010, played for the Cowboys for two years after graduating from Miami in 1989. Shannon replaces Tony Tademy, who left the job to spend more time with his family, including two high school-age sons.Shannon was a Miami Dolphin defensive assistant in 1998 and 1999 and coached linebackers in 2000. He was the Hurricanes’ defensive coordinator for six seasons before being named head coach in Dec. 2006. Under Shannon, the Hurricane defense ranked in the top 10 five of six seasons. Shannon went 28-22 as head coach at Miami.

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said Monday that administrators shaping the future of college football’s post-season during the playoff era hope to lock in the location of the national championship game following the 2014 season by Jan. 1. Cowboys Stadium in Arlington is among the leading venues to host the contest and Bowlsby said he expects the game to be played within the Big 12’s geographic footprint “on occasion.”

Bids are expected to be placed within the next 60 days and Tommy Bain, chairman of the Cotton Bowl Athletic Association, said he plans to meet Tuesday with Cowboys’ officials for further discussions.

“We anticipate us being one of the finalists,” Bain said, referring to the venues seeking to host the inaugural national title game of the playoff era. “At this point, we’re confident we’ll host a national championship game. It’s just a matter of when.”

Bowlsby indicated commissioners are anxious to set the site for the 2014 title game “so somebody can get started” preparing for it and promoting it. He said he would be “disappointed” if a site had not been selected by Jan. 1.

Bain said the availability of all suites in Cowboys Stadium could be an asset in the bidding process. Bain said individuals who paid personal seat licenses for their suites in the stadium did so with the knowledge that they would not have access to those suites in two instances: a Super Bowl or a national championship game in college football. Instead, those suite holders would have the option of taking tickets elsewhere in the facility.

In addition, Cotton Bowl president Rick Baker said administrators will be active in trying to land the Champions Bowl that will match teams from the Big 12 and the SEC, starting with the 2014 season. Bidding for that is expected to start within two weeks, Bowlsby said.

“We’ve expressed our interest to both the Big 12 and the SEC,” Baker said. “We’re in a waiting mode.”

TCU coach Gary Patterson keeps hearing about how tough the final month of his first Big 12 schedule is going to be this fall.But he’s too concerned with the Horned Frogs’ first few opponents to worry about that. After TCU opens the season and its newly renovated Amon G. Carter Stadium Sept. 8 against Grambling State, the Frogs have their Big 12 opener at Kansas at 11 a.m. Sept. 15. “Starting with Kansas, and I think all the way through, each one of those games poses a problem and we should approach it like that,” Patterson said. “We've always been a very workman-like group when it comes to ball games like that. Last year was a great example of kind of the mental toughness that our group had. All the games we had to win, all the Bowl teams in our conference were all on the road.”TCU is back for a nonconference game against Virginia Sept. 22 and at SMU Sept. 29 before moving exclusively to Big 12 competition against Iowa State at home Oct. 6. The Frogs are at Baylor Oct. 13 and home against Texas Tech Oct. 20 before the schedule is turned up a notch with two road games at Oklahoma State and West Virginia. Kansas State is at TCU Nov. 10 before the Frogs finish at Texas on Thanksgiving weekend and home against Oklahoma Dec. 1.

TCU quarterback Casey Pachall talks preseason rankings, the move to the Big 12, and the aftermath of February's drug sting:

TCU offensive lineman Blaize Foltz talks about the media onslaught and the question about Gary Patterson he chose not to answer:

TCU defensive end Stansly Maponga talks Big 12 Media Days and anticipation of the Horned Frogs' first season in the league:

July 18, 2012

Texas defensive end Alex Okafor earned Big 12 Defensive Player of the Years honors on the pre-season All-Big 12 team released today by league officials. Other individual honorees, selected by media members who cover the league, included West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith (Offensive Player of the Year) and Oklahoma freshman receiver Trey Metoyer (Newcomer of the Year).

League officials also released the list of first-team honorees, which included TCU defensive lineman Stansly Maponga. Maponga was the lone Horned Frog selected to the first-team unit.